Friday, May 7, 2010

I love Craigslist

Being from the Bay Area originally I feel like I was "in the know" about Craigslist way before the rest of the Country. Okay, I know that probably isn't true, I'm not that cool, but it sure felt like that when I lived in Omaha.

Craigslist was founded in 1995 (the year I graduated high school), by Craig Newmark - San Francisco resident. I remember when they would open up new markets and it would be exciting. You felt like you were in on some special group. Now, that group is a mega force of free online classifieds serving 20 billion (with a "B") impressions per month. To put it simply Craigslist is the 11th most visited website in the United States. Pretty good for a Company which has only 32 employees.

In my lifetime I've found most of my apartments, jobs and furniture on Craigslist. I joked the other day that I'm thinking about putting up an ad for a husband! I wanted to share some serendipity I've experienced on Craigslist lately which has made me love the site even more.

Since moving into my new apartment I've decided I'm no longer going to feature any "college-like furniture" i.e IKEA bookshelves, side tables from Target etc. I'm an adult and I want my apartment to reflect that. But, I don't have thousands of dollars to go out and buy new fancy adult like furniture so I turn to my old pal....Craigslist.

My first purchase only a couple weeks ago was a bed side table. After sifting through the IKEA castoffs I found the perfect table. Small, unique, distressed, great shape - Perfect! Living in the City sans car makes it difficult to move furniture so I was happy when I saw in the Post that the seller lived in my neighborhood. When I probed her as to where exactly, it turns out she was right across the street from my apartment! Small world right? This made the move rather simple.

I've also been on the hunt for a the perfect grown up coffee table. After a rather exhaustive search I came across this listing:What a deal! Cute AND two for the price of one! I jumped on it. When I showed up to the building to pick up the tables I felt it was oddly familiar. Then I figured out why. The girl I'd gone to drinks with the week prior that I hadn't seen in 15 years since we graduated high school, well - she lived there. Yep, a three unit building and my Junior High Friend's neighbor was the one selling the cute tables at the great price. Definitely a small world! The best part? Since I couldn't fit the tables in a cab (which was my original plan) Caryn offered to give me a ride. Sometimes life just works out!